Machine for continuously removing over-sized undesirable material from crop material mixtures

ABSTRACT

The machine is supported on a frame structure which includes a housing and has mounted within such housing a single, endless screening apron which has multi functions. The apron utilizes a plurality of flexibly connected, rectangular screening sections of a mesh quite coarse relative to the relatively regular shapes of the granular material to be saved, and substantially smaller than the coarse, undesirable trash material. The material mixture such as harvested crops including fragments of stalks, leaves, pods, cobs and so forth which in harvesting are intermingled with the desirable granular crop material, is constantly fed axially into a loop portion of one end of the said apron, wherein travel of the apron and at the bottom of the loop portion, the smaller granular material readily flows through and is dropped from the coarse mesh. The over-sized material travels past this point and then over a serpentine or tortuous course which causes the pans to spread widely apart, dropping the trash material at a predetermined area.

United States Patent Feterl [54] MACHINE FOR CONTINUOUSLY REMOVINGOVER-SIZED UNDESIRABLE MATERIAL FROM CROP MATERIAL MIXTURES 72 Inventor:Leon 6. Feterl, Salem, s. Dak.

221 Filed: 11 111131910 21 Appl.No.: 25,421

[52] US. Cl. ..209/243, 209/307 [51] Int. Cl ..B07b 13/16, B07b 1/10[58] Field 01 Search ..209/307, 308, 247, 261, 428,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 240,889 5/ 1881 Compton..209/92 391,281 10/1888 Smith ..209/308 936,162 10/1909 Pringle..209/308 1,587,196 6/1926 Soldan ..209/405 1,823,126 9/1931 Ross..209/307 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 2,731 12/1898 Great Britain..209/307 1451 Aug. 8, 1972 1,117,3 4 11/1961 Gennany.... ..209/92Primary Examiner-Frank W. Lutter Assistant Examiner-Robert l-lalperAttomey-Williamson, Palmatier 8L Bains ABSTRACT The machine is supportedon a frame structure which includes a housing and has mounted withinsuch housing a single, endless screening apron which has multifunctions. The apron utilizes a plurality of flexibly connected,rectangular screening sections of a mesh quite coarse relative to therelatively regular shapes of the granular material to be saved, andsubstantially smaller than the coarse, undesirable trash material. Thematerial mixture such as harvested crops including fragments of stalks,leaves, pods, cobs and so forth which in harvesting are intermingledwith the desirable granular crop material, is constantly fed axiallyinto a loop portion of one end of the said apron, wherein travel of theapron and at the bottom of the loop portion, the smaller granularmaterial readily flows through and is dropped from the coarse mesh. Theover-sized material travels past this point and then over a serpentineor tortuous course which causes the pans to spread widely apart,dropping the trash material at a predetermined area.

SClainmBDrawingFigures PATENTEDAuc 8 m2 3,882,303

sum 1 or 2 'HIHII.

llllllh.

'Hllh INVENY'OR. 450 6. 727524 l I 3 BY paduzfwgm A? rronwsy:

PATENTED 3 I972 3.682.303

sum 2 0r 2 INVENTOR. LEO G. Pars/u flrromvsys MACHINE FOR CONTINUOUSLYREMOVING OVER-SIZED UNDESIRABLE MATERIAL FROM CROP MATERIAL MIXTURESThis invention relates to a machine for readily and quite uniformlyseparating and removing oversized, undesirable material from smaller,substantially regular granular material such as the grains of food cropsinlluding soybeans, sorghum, shelled corn, oats and the In the presentday harvesting of many crops, including those previously specifiedherein, materials generally classified as trash, including fragments ofstalks, pods, leaves, vines and straw, in substantial quantity areusually admixed with the granular seeds, grain and the like whichconstitute the desirable crops harvested.

THE PRIOR ART The prior art known to this applicant includes a number ofmechanical separating machines which, for the most part, act onprinciples of separation of the smaller and heavier desirable particlesfrom a mass through centrifugal force, screens and selective pick updevices. In some instances, as in separation of potatoes from clods andvines, the vines and clods are passed in a line of travel on aclassifying conveyor moving rearwardly while the potatoes are passedthrough rods or mesh of a chosen dimension.

In some prior structures electrostatic separators have been used to pickoff and remove lighter materials, such as straw, chaff and fibrousmaterials, which are more susceptible to a magnetic influence.

None of the prior art, to my knowledge, has employed simple operatingmechanism for quickly treating the discharge from harvesting machineryto take out fragments of stalks, pods, leaves, cobs, vines, straw andthe like at high capacity, and to leave the finer desirable granularmaterial fully classified or at least ready for a finer classificationtreatment.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of my invention to provide aneconomical simple machine which will continuously separate out andremove over-sized, undesirable material from regular granular materialssuch as the grains of food crops, by utilization of a single, endlessand multi-functional screening apron which in operation at one end ofthe machine, internally receives the admixture including trash materialsuch as stalk portions, leaves, vine portions and cob fragments, whileletting pass the finer crop granules or grains and which in a subsequentoperation of the same apron, discharges and dumps out the trash materialinto suitable collection means.

A further object is the provision of a machine of the class describedwhich employs as an endless apron, a multiplicity of flexibly orchain-connected screen sec tions in the form of rectangular bodies orpans, in combination with a means for guiding and distending saidendless apron to form a material-receiving, semi-cylindrical forwardportion in the machine wherein harvested crops containing desirablegranular material and trash are constantly fed; and with further guidingof the apron through a tortuous or sinuous course which inherentlycauses the pan sections after original discharge of the desirable cropor granular material, to

be spread apart over an area of travel, thereby dumping out the coarser,undesirable material before the apron has traveled to its next receivingposition.

Important features and novel combinations of my invention include theprovision for continuously feeding material such as harvested cropswhich contain in admixture the rather regular shaped granules or seedsintemiingled with trash material including fragments of stalks, leaves,vines, cobs, etc., into the axial end of a screening chamber defined bya substantially cylindrical portion of a single, endless separatingapron. The apron is composed of a multiplicity of flexibly connected andpan-shaped separation screens of relatively large mesh to enable smallregular kernels of granules to readily drop therethrough while retainingthe said over-sized trash materials. Thus almost immediate removal ofthe granular crop particles is obtained while the same apron causes theover-sized materials to travel rearwardly and then through a serpentinecourse which causes the pans to separately and in pairs, spread widelyapart for depositing and discharging the trash at an area removed fromthe crop discharge.

The foregoing and other objects will be more apparent from the followingdescription made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an embodiment of the machine showing thestanding housing and supporting frame with the driving mechanism andconnections for the various driven shafts of the machine;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation with the top of the housing removed, showinga plurality of the separation units with coarse screens mounted thereon,and showing the guided endless roller chains which constitute portionsof the apron; and

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross section taken on the line 3 '3 of FIG. 2illustrating the guiding and distension of the roller chains of theapron.

Referring now in detail to the form of the invention illustrated inthedrawings, an upstanding housing, for the main part constructed ofheavy sheet material, indicated generally by the letter H, and withreinforcements constituting the supporting frame of the structure isprovided, having spaced vertical side walls 5, a heavy top wall 6, avertical forward wall 7 and a rear wall 8. This main housing H, asshown, is supported upon and above a lower base housing of rectangularform, indicated as an entirety by the letter B. The forward and lowerportion of housing H, as later will be brought out in detail,constitutes a material-receiving chamber, indicated generally as R, andhas communicating therewith, through one of the side walls 5, a largetubular conduit which has axially and longitudinally mounted therein anauger or screw conveyor A, the flights of which are rigidly secured to adriven shaft 10. Shaft 10 has a diminished outer end extending throughthe said receiving chamber and through the opposite wall 5 of thehousing, and a large circular closure cap 11, as shown, surrounds theterminal portion of the shaft 10; closure 11 being removably affixed toone of the side walls 5 of the housing.

An endless driven conveyor apron, indicated as an entirety by the letterC, is mounted between the side walls 5 of the housing and in widthoccupying substantially the space between said side walls and issupported, distended and entrained upon essential supentrained upon apair of widely spaced idler sprockets l3 joumaled for smooth rotationupon a transverse idler shaft 14 affixed between the side walls 5 of thehousing towards the rear thereof and at an axial line substantiallyabove the height of the axis of auger shaft 10. The roller chains 12, asshown on their forward declined portions or runs thereof, are supportedand guided by stationary slide tracks 15 respectively secured in opposedrelation to the inner sides of the housing walls 5. Slide tracks 15, asclearly shown in FIG. 3, have declined forward portions whichtangentially merge into semicircular continuous track sections 15a,which extend concentrically and slightly out wardly of the interior ofthe delivery end of the screw conveyor or auger conduit 9. Thesemicircular track sections 15a terminate in straight sections 15bhaving terminal intumed extremities 15c. The roller chains 12 of theconveyor apron are entrained over the upper portions of a pair ofdriving sprockets 16 which are affixed to a driven shaft 17 extendingtransversely of the housing H and disposed between the idler shaft 14and tiplicity of generally rectangular separating pans,

generally indicated as P, and each of which consists of a rectangularframe structure of substantially rigid construction having opposed sidewalls 18 which are attached by pins 18a to one of the roller chainsections. Thus the pan frames traverse the two endless chains 12 and arefixedly connected therewith and preferably have widths substantiallygreater than the traveling lengths of the pans.

- Suspended and stretched across the pan frames, and each thereof, is acoarse screening sheet S, which may constitute heavy crossed or otherwire screening or might be in the form of expanded metal. Each of thepan structures includes a transverse strut 19, which may be constructedof angle iron, but which is preferably made, as shown in FIG. 3, byforming a 180 bend in screening sheet S. Strut l9 traverses the twosides 18 of the pan and has its outer edge disposed above the outer endedges of the pan frames. Strut 19 is preferably positioned one-third ofthe traveling length of the pan from the leading edge thereof. Thecoarseness of the mesh of the pad screenS may be seen from FIG. 2 andwill of course vary somewhat in accordance with the particular cropmaterials which are to be worked upon. For the majority of materials ofharvested crop containing oversize trash, a linear mesh of about one.inch square is suggested and suitable.

The entire conveyor apron C is confined within, the housing H and, asshown in FIG. 3, a descending enlarged spout comprising the front wallof housing 7 and the upstanding front wall 7a of thebase housing,

together with the vertical wall 20 which at its upper end has affixed aninclined spout section 21. The walls 20 and 21 preferably traverse thefull width of the lower portion of housing H and form a descendingdownwardly tapered spout underlying the lower portion of the endlessconveyor apron C, and receiving therefrom the finer granular and cropmaterials.

The several revolving parts of the machine may of course be driven invarious ways, but as shown an electric motor is mounted on the heavyrear end of the top 6 of the housing having a V-belt pulley Y affixed tothe outwardly projecting end of the armature shaft thereof,

which is drive connected by a V-belt VB with a greatly projecting end ofthe auger shaft 10, as seen in FIG. 2. Thus the auger A is driven at asubstantially decreased rpm relative to the motor M. The extension ofshaft 10 outside of the housing carries a small driving sprocket 22 overwhich an open driving chain 23 is trained. Chain 23 is also trainedabout sprocket 23a affixed to transverse driven shaft 17 which actually,through the affixed chain sprockets l6, drives the endless conveyor andseparating apron C in the direction indicated in FIG. 3.

The shaft 14 of the idler sprocket 13 is suitably journaled in bearingsprovided at the exterior of the housing sides 5, one of said bearings14a being shown in FIG. 1.

From the foregoing description of the exemplary driving mechanism shown,it will be seen that the shafl 17, to which are affixed the chainsprockets 16, is driven at a relatively low speed and these sprocketsact as the sole driving means for the conveyor and separating apron C,which, as previously set forth, carries a multiplicity of transversepan-like separators, the medial portions of whichare affixed to twoopposing sets of links of the roller chain.

OPERATION In operation, the screw conveyor comprising the large tubularconduit 9 with the screw auger A revolvably mounted therein receivesmaterial from a hopper or the discharge end of a harvester for crops andtakes the entire mass of the harvested discharge metering in itsconveying this mass axially into the portion of housing H which issurrounded by the semicylindrical portion of the conveyor apron C (towit, that portion which is marked as the receiving portion R, see FIG.3).

The mass material containing a considerable proportion of oversize,trash fragments, such as stalk, pod, broken cobs, leaves and vines,remains on-the interior of the conveyor apron C, and although in itsentrainment upon the guide tracks 15 and sections 15a and 15b due to thecurvature of section 15a, the opposing ends of adjacent pan separationelements are spread apart some small distance. This'distance, atsuchporovoid and kernel form readily works through and drops through therather loose over-sized material and such dropping and discharge occurs,as shown in FIG. 3, in the upper end of the discharge spout. Thereafter,the oversized material still remains within the confines of thecontainer apron and passes over the top portions, at its edges, of thedriving sprockets 16 for the chains. Thereafter the chains and the apronpass through a tortuous course beneath the idler sprockets 13, which areat least as small, and preferably slightly smaller in diameter, than thedriving sprockets 16. In such sharp circular travel, the opposing edgesof adjacent pans are spread very widely apart and to such a greatdistance that the oversized material, as indicated by the arrows andrepresentations of coarse material at the lefthand of FIG. 3, dropsdownwardly and is suitably collected by means or a trough at the bottomportion of the housmg.

The foregoing operation takes place rapidly because of the constant,substantially metered feeding of the admixed materials and because themesh of the screening is very large relative to the size and shapes ofthe crop granules. Furthermore the oversized trash materials confined inthe screening apron are very quickly removed after the granule-removalstep by the wide spread-apart action of the screen pans in passingthrough the tortuous course rearwardly disposed of thematerial-receiving chamber R.

The invention is widely applicable for many uses in agricultural andalso other fields where it is desirable to, without shaking or thresheraction, and without the necessity of aspiration or suction, quicklyremove from a loose mass of material containing valuable granular orquite regular shaped particles, admixed with substantially oversizedparticles, to separate the said classes and entirely remove the grosslyover-sized particles or trash from the admixture. In agricultural use,the device is particularly adaptable for rapid recovery of the desirableregular shaped crop particles in crops such as soy beans, corn, oats,sorghum and cereal grains. In numerous instances, at least some of suchcrops require one or more final steps of classification to obtain thechoicest crop granules or seeds. With my improved structure, the trashand relatively long fragments, including pods, cob and stalk fragments,leaves and vines may be quickly contained, traveled and removed prior towhich time the quite regular shaped crop particles drop out from thetrash material and through the relatively large sizing screens.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that my improved machinenot only in the specific form illustrated but in other equivalent forms,may be constructed inexpensively, and will function with high efficiencyfor all of the purposes intended.

It will further be seen that an important feature of my machine is theuse of a single material-carrying and sizing endless apron with themeans for guiding the same about a substantially cylindrical receivingportion through which mixed material may be continuously fed, enablingthrough the sizing of the material, the granules to readily pass throughthe bottom of the said cylindrical portion; together with themulti-function of this same apron with a multiplicity of flexiblyjoined, rectangular screen pans to continuously go through a tortuouscourse which causes the individual screens or pans to spread widelyapart for dropping out and removing the trash or oversized material soonafter separation and removal of the valuable regular crop materials.

What is claimed is:

l. A machine for separating out and removing oversized, undesirablematerial from admixed, substantially regular or granular crop material,having in combination:

a supporting frame structure,

a driven endless screening apron mounted transversely in said framestructure and including a plurality of rectangular screening sectionshaving screening of a mesh very coarse relative to the shapes and sizesof the granular material to be saved, and substantially smaller than theoversized, undesirable material,

means for guiding and distending said apron to form adjacent one end ofsaid machine, a generally cylindrical mixture-receiving portion,

means for feeding the admixed material axially into said receivingportion,

means below and extending slightly to the rear of said cylindricalreceiving portion into which the finer and substantially regulargranular material drops through the mesh of said screening sections,

means operable upon the under run of said apron and disposedsubstantially rearwardly of said receiving portion for causing saidseparate screen units to be temporarily spread widely apart, therebydumping out the coarse material contained in said apron,

means for continuously driving said screening apron at predeterminedspeeds,

means for continuously feeding the admixed material at a predeterminedspeed relative to the speed of said apron,

said apron including a pair of widely spaced, endless chains acrosswhich said screening sections are affixed,

said means for guiding and distending said apron to form said generallycylindrical mixture-receiving portion being of substantially largediameter to maintain the adjacent edges of successive screens about saidreceiving portion in relatively close spaced relation, and

said means for temporarily spreading said screen unit widely apart,comprising two sets of distending and guiding means for said chains,causing said chains and the screen units carried thereby to pass throughtortuous arcuate portions in the travel of said apron at its under runsubstantially rearwardly of said receiving portions.

2. The structure and combination set forth and defined in claim 1,wherein said means for distending and guiding the said two chainsthrough said tortuous arcuate course comprises a pair of sprockets oflesser diameters than the diameter of said receiving portion of saidapron and having upper peripheral edges disposed substantially above thelower peripheral edge of said receiving portion of said apron, togetherwith sprockets disposed rearwardly of said first sprockets, also ofsubstantially smaller diameter than the diameter of said receivingportion, and

' having under peripheries disposed substantially below the upperperipheries of said first set of sprockets, whereby in travel under saidsecond set of sprockets, .the plurality of screening sections will besubstantially angulated and thus spread to cause. discharge of theundesirable, oversized material through spaces between said screeningunits.

3. The structure and combination set forth and defined in claimv 1,wherein said screening sections each comprise an open work,substantially rigid rectangular frame,

a netting secured to and extending across said frame and a transversestrut bar secured across said frame and extending outwardly beyond oneedge thereof to distend the netting transversely along a line disposedrearwardly of the leading edge thereof.

4. A machine for separating out and removing oversized, undesirablematerial from admixed, substantially regular or granular crop material,having in combination:

a supporting frame structure,

a driven endless screening apron mounted transversely in said framestructure and including a plurality of rectangular screening sectionshaving screening of a mesh very coarse relative to the shapes and sizesof the granular material to be saved, and substantially smaller than theoversized, undesirable material,

a first means for guiding and distending said apron to form adjacent oneend of said machine, a generally cylindrical mixture-receiving andscreening portion, a

means for feeding the admixed material axially into said receivingportion,

particle-receiving means belowand extending slightly to the rear of saidcylindrical receiving portion into which the finer and-substantiallyregular granular material drops through the mesh of said screeningsections, 7

said means for guiding and distending said apron to form said generallycylindrical mixture-receiving further characterized by means forcontinuously driving said screening apron at predetermined speeds,

means for continuously feeding the admixed material at a predeterminedspeed relative to the speed of said apron, said apron including a pairof widely spaced, endless chains across which said screening sectionsare affixed.

* II i

1. A machine for separating out and removing oversized, undesirablematerial from admixed, substantially regular or granular crop material,having in combination: a supporting frame structure, a driven endlessscreening apron mounted transversely in said frame structure andincluding a plurality of rectangular screening sections having screeningof a mesh very coarse relative to the shapes and sizes of the granularmaterial to be saved, and substantially smaller than the oversized,undesirable material, means for guiding and distending said apron toform adjacent one end of said machine, a generally cylindricalmixture-receiving portion, means for feeding the admixed materialaxially into said receiving portion, means below and extending slightlyto the rear of said cylindrical receiving portion into which the finerand substantially regular granular material drops through the mesh ofsaid screening sections, means operable upon the under run of said apronand disposed substantially rearwardly of said receiving portion forcausing said separate screen units to be temporarily spread widelyapart, thereby dumping out the coarse material contained in said apron,means for continuously driving said screening apron at predeterminedspeeds, means for continuously feeding the admixed material at apredetermined speed relative to the speed of said apron, said apronincluding a pair of widely spaced, endless chains across which saidscreening sections are affixed, said means for guiding and distendingsaid apron to form said generally cylindrical mixture-receiving portionbeIng of substantially large diameter to maintain the adjacent edges ofsuccessive screens about said receiving portion in relatively closespaced relation, and said means for temporarily spreading said screenunit widely apart, comprising two sets of distending and guiding meansfor said chains, causing said chains and the screen units carriedthereby to pass through tortuous arcuate portions in the travel of saidapron at its under run substantially rearwardly of said receivingportions.
 2. The structure and combination set forth and defined inclaim 1, wherein said means for distending and guiding the said twochains through said tortuous arcuate course comprises a pair ofsprockets of lesser diameters than the diameter of said receivingportion of said apron and having upper peripheral edges disposedsubstantially above the lower peripheral edge of said receiving portionof said apron, together with sprockets disposed rearwardly of said firstsprockets, also of substantially smaller diameter than the diameter ofsaid receiving portion, and having under peripheries disposedsubstantially below the upper peripheries of said first set ofsprockets, whereby in travel under said second set of sprockets, theplurality of screening sections will be substantially angulated and thusspread to cause discharge of the undesirable, oversized material throughspaces between said screening units.
 3. The structure and combinationset forth and defined in claim 1, wherein said screening sections eachcomprise an open work, substantially rigid rectangular frame, a nettingsecured to and extending across said frame and a transverse strut barsecured across said frame and extending outwardly beyond one edgethereof to distend the netting transversely along a line disposedrearwardly of the leading edge thereof.
 4. A machine for separating outand removing oversized, undesirable material from admixed, substantiallyregular or granular crop material, having in combination: a supportingframe structure, a driven endless screening apron mounted transverselyin said frame structure and including a plurality of rectangularscreening sections having screening of a mesh very coarse relative tothe shapes and sizes of the granular material to be saved, andsubstantially smaller than the oversized, undesirable material, a firstmeans for guiding and distending said apron to form adjacent one end ofsaid machine, a generally cylindrical mixture-receiving and screeningportion, means for feeding the admixed material axially into saidreceiving portion, particle-receiving means below and extending slightlyto the rear of said cylindrical receiving portion into which the finerand substantially regular granular material drops through the mesh ofsaid screening sections, said means for guiding and distending saidapron to form said generally cylindrical mixture-receiving portion beingof substantially large diameter, adequate to maintain the adjacent edgesof successive screening sections about said receiving portion in closespaced relation, and a second apron-guiding and distending meansoperable upon the under run of said apron and substantially rearwardlydisposed of said mixture-receiving portion and being of relatively smalldiameter to cause said separate screen sections to temporarily spreadwidely apart, thereby dumping out the coarse material contained in saidapron.
 5. The structure and combination set forth in claim 4 furthercharacterized by means for continuously driving said screening apron atpredetermined speeds, means for continuously feeding the admixedmaterial at a predetermined speed relative to the speed of said apron,said apron including a pair of widely spaced, endless chains acrosswhich said screening sections are affixed.